strangeness & charm
by veggiemom
Summary: "Oh please, my dear, daft lady. Must everything always be so negative with you? I wouldn't waste my time in this dreary cave if I was only here to make your day miserable. I'm here to comfort you, of course." — Lady Bat/Lanhua.


**a/n: lady bat is trans in this piece, so no comments about her gender, please.  
this was barely edited so you're bound to find typos.  
this piece was written for femslash february! ive always loved lady bat/lanhua.**

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"Christ," Lady Bat says as she throws her back onto the moist cavern wall, her eyes shown with the utmost irritation. It's the third- _fourth_ (god she cant even keep track) time shes been defeated by those mermaid princesses, with their glittering eyes and bright smiles and disgustingly pretty voices that should only belong to Goddesses themselves.

"Christ?" An amused voice comes from the front of the cave, where the light shown too bright for the bat's comfort, squinting as she looked into the near blinding that infiltrated her wonderfully dark sanctuary.

It's Lanhua, naturally. She stands illuminated with white sunlight, her wings only barely twitching. She wears a smirk on her lips, picture perfect and all the more aggravating. In her hands is a fan, which she quickly closes and tosses into her other, head tilting inquisitively.

"Do you even believe in such a silly notion?"

Lady Bat scoffs and rubs at her temple before running her hands through her hair, looking away from the butterfly and back into the morbid darkness of her cave.

"I'm not in the mood," she grunts, and Lanhua laughs and Lady Bat can hear her drawing closer, her shoes crunching against the wet rocks. Her hearing is exquisite, for she _is_ a bat, after all.

A fairly disgruntled and _running out of patience_ bat.

"Come come, now. its unbecoming of a lady such as yourself to be pouting is such a childish manner," Lanhua chimes, and Lady Bat hears her stop in her tracks, "And not to mention those awfully guttural noises coming out of your mouth. You should gargle a mouth full of soap for that."

"Yeah yeah," Lady Bat groans, attempting to peer further into the darkness of her cave. But alas, darkness doesnt go far and she cant see the end of it, so she sighs. Huffs more like it. Akin to a small child.

Lanhua chortles a laugh. Lady Bat finally looks over at her, purple eyes narrowed down to slits.

"What do you want?" she asks.

The butterfly's smile remains perked against her lips before she sighs and closes her eyes, as if frozen in thought for a few moments. Lady Bat stares at her intently, as though she's ready to strike or at least trying to burn holes through her body.

This woman...

"Nothing in particular!" She finally says, and opens one eye with a grin before she too leans on the wall, closer now more than ever. Her head falls to the side and she looks at Lady Bat, who peers up at her (shes shorter than the butterfly, though her wings are bigger- stronger, more powerful) with disdain.

"To mock me." Lady Bat says flatly, a definitive statement rather than a question.

"Oh please, my dear, _daft_ lady. Must everything always be so negative with you? I wouldn't waste my time in this dreary cave if I was only here to make your day miserable. I'm here to comfort you, of course."

There's a moment of silence before Lady Bat sighs and slides down the rocky surface of the cave wall. It hurts a bit, as the bumps made from the rocks catch on her skin, but she ignores it. Lanhua looks down at her.

"Are you going to continue to be such a drag?"

"Probably," Lady Bat answers, stiffly.

Lanhua rolls her eyes and crouches near the maroon haired woman. Her ankles tremble to support her weight and she places her elbows on her knees, skin barely exposed underneath her dress. She stares for a moment before she blows warm air onto the bat's face.

She flushes immediately and grips the wall behind her as though she's preparing for mass impact- gasping sharply, like she's just seen a god damn ghost.

Lanhua snorts and thinks briefly: I need to swallow an entire soap bar for that disgusting noise, don't I.

"You're always cold. It's cold in here. I thought it'd warm you up." She pauses and leans against the wall to stop the trembling in her legs, unable to support herself much longer and not wanting to make a fool of herself in falling over into the dampness of the moss and rocks.

"What a reaction from the same woman who goes on and on about love and passion and whatnot."

Lady Bat, still red in the face, huffs at her. Her patience has worn thin and she has no more energy, nothing to say, her words stuck in the back of her throat (though theyre all gibberish, shes sure) and her mind worn. So, staring into the face of the barely amused Lanhua, she gives up and leans against the wall next to her- shoulders touching.

God, she _is_ warm and she herself, well, she's cold. She's always cold. Her skin.

The silence takes them once again. It's that way for a few minutes. Nothing but the sound of droplettes of water hitting the earth below them and the sound of their breathing before Lanhua giggles, softly.

"Isn't this better than being alone?" She asks.

Lady Bat takes a moment, once again gazing into the blackness of her cave, "Yes."

"Are you warmer, too?"

"Yes."

Lanhua smiles, gently, and her cheeks turn a bit red, though she knows Lady Bat cannot see. Her eyes close, much like a baby, lids sleepy with effort of the day.

"Good."


End file.
